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
None of This is True
Lisa Jewell
On her forty-fifth birthday, Alix Summers runs into Josie Fair, who happens to also be celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. Soon Alix runs into Josie again, and the two become friends. Josie thinks her interesting life would be a great subject for Alix’s true crime podcast. Josie manipulates her way into Josie’s life and home before vanishing. Suddenly, Alix finds unexpectedly finds herself the subject of her own podcast and must uncover Josie’s dark secrets to protect her family.
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.
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.
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 in with her siblings – a brother who’s a single dad trying to overcome a brain injury and a sister struggling with big secrets of her own. 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.
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.

The Most Anticipated August 2023 Book Releases
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Bookbinder
Pip Williams
In 1914, sisters Peggy and Maude work binding books at a university press in Oxford. While Peggy dreams of gaining a higher education, Maude seems content with the status quo. As war breaks out and refugees stream in, Peggy begins to imagine new possibilities for her life. Yet when she falls in love with a Belgian soldier, she worries that her dreams might never come true.
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!
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